Play, Practice, Learn

Oct 10, 2015 Loutro, Crete

The place we practice yoga is an old Venetian fort overlooking the entrance to the bay in one direction, the town in the other. We watched the lights of the next town to the north go off as the sun rose. There is a small rocky island next to us with a goat on it. The story is that a local guy raised a baby goat and the goat got too attached, followed him around everywhere, slept under his bed, growing bigger all the time. So he put the goat out on this rocky outpost. That was the story I heard last year. This year, there was a rumor that there was another goat to keep him company. Elan was the only one of us to spot the second goat, the rest of us were convinced he was alone and lonely. We were ready to form a local chapter of PETA, or at least get a start-up going to raise money for a second goat.

Today was a hiking day. The sea is on the rougher side, so we walked the E-4 to Sweetwater, a beach with a natural sweet water spring. Another few hours of swimming and lying around on the beach. There are the most beautiful smooth round rocks here. Remember we learned how rocks become pebbles become sand? Well you can see the entire process on this beach…

The tiny restaurant sits on a short dock and turns out terrific food. It is family run and there is a most handsome Cretan who oversees the beach and runs the place. I definitely remember him from last year.

We hiked back at the end of the day then went out for late afternoon yoga practice. On the way back, Elan glanced up and saw a restaurant up a hill, overlooking the bay. He checked it out and a group of us decided to have dinner here. Excellent decision, up there with the best food we’ve had in Crete. Two dogs live at the hotel connected to the restaurant and they kept us company. We spent the evening up there, watching the waves crash louder and higher.